Illinois officer in recent viral clip of shockingly close call with semi truck speaks on “Move Over” law

The Illinois police officer who was nearly flattened by a semi truck on the side of the highway recently has reached out to speak on the importance of the viral clip and “Move Over” law. 

Officer Dan Williams’ close call was on February 15th, and was just one of the 10 squad cars that have been struck by vehicles that failed to heed the “Move Over” law already this year. 

“It’s tough to think you’ve been so close to being it and possibly killed. And the family sees that going on so they’ve all taken it pretty hard as well. I was protecting an officer ahead of me. Black ice had formed so we had accidents on both sides of the interstate,” Williams explained to Local 4 News.

In light of an uptick in similar incidents throughout the state,  the Illinois State Police have announced that they will be ‘aggressively enforcing’ the Move Over law, and violators could face fines as high as $10,000. 

“There’s been an epidemic of loss of life among emergency personnel by being struck by vehicles on the side of the road while trying to provide emergency services,” said Russ Idle, the Galesburg Chief of Police. 

“It’s a very important law. [We shared the video because] we wanted to give the public an example of the kind of thing we’re talking about.”